Top 5 rubbish/cheap tricks used to make games challenging

We've all succumbed to these tricks at one point or another in our gaming, but they are accepted as the norm no matter how cheap they can be. Here's five of the most common cheap tricks used by developers.

[RaidensRising]

One of my biggest complaints is absent in the article and should have been included and that's grenade spamming in the COD games. Especially on veteran.

Pin point accuracy to the point where they can throw three grenades so the blast radius surrounds you on all sides.

[bunt-custardly]

Oh, the grenade spamming in COD. Oh my. Don't think I can ever bring myself to endure the frustration of World at War veteran, not if I want to keep my controller out of my TV.

[PhantomT1412]

When these Nazis LITERALLY throw you 5 grenades behind your cover lol
Ah Reichstag, that was a freaking nightmare

[Cosmit]

That was only WaW though. It was cheap though.

[Eyeco]

lool i love how no-ones mentioned how the AI in COD games are experts at head shots in veteran, seriously MW-2 are nightmares on veteran

[PhantomT1412]

MW2 was one of the easiest COD on veteran.

[ShadesMoolah]

Developers do need to change the way they make games difficult. I think Dark Souls had a good grasp on difficulty without being overly cheap or punishing.

[TopDudeMan]

There's difficulty, and then there's the illusion of difficulty. Dark souls isn't difficult, it's just if you screw up you die. It is a very fair game, once you grasp the controls and basic fighting tactics and stay focused.

If you ask me, the hardest genre of game is 2D platforming. The old mario games were very difficult, you really had to spend some time with it and get to grips with each level.

[h311rais3r]

Well I agree to an extent. Some bosses are 1 hit ko with a huge blast radius.

[D0ffy]

I totally agree with you.

Have you played the bonus level in Rayman: Origins? Reminded me of old school, damn hard 2D platforming. Was not unfair or anything just plain challenging and rewarding when you completed it.

[scrambles]

Some games are known to be difficult and therefore are required to be difficult. Look at Touhou, its so difficult it makes Dark Souls look like a game for little girls.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[MidnytRain]

I know a guy who plays Touhou and let me try it in class. Game's absurd.

[TopDudeMan]

Bullet hell games are notorious for being difficult, though. If you played any of the old megadrive bullet hell games (there were a lot) you know that, anyway.

[iamnsuperman]

The enemy AI one is annoying but I can see the need in certain games. I see it happen more on harder difficulties to make the game much more difficult. Its a cheep trick but it does work quite effectively.

[Marquis_de_Sade]

I believe enemy (and friendly) AI is the one area in gaming I would like to see massively improved upon the arrival of the next generation hardware. I was playing BF3 single player yesterday and found it incredibly frustrating, not to mention downright ridiculous, how on Operation Swordbreaker when you're on the roofs of the buildings, the enemies on the ground would ignore your squad mates literally feet in front of them to fire inch perfect shots from the hip up at you. Really breaks the immersion.

[TenSteps]

You know I turn this into a game. When a Top # List comes out I make a guess whether it's msxbox-world or gamesradar.

My current score is 3-1.

[DrunkDan]

Constantly respawning enemies is another cheap way of adding difficulty to a game.

I always thought Goldeneye N64 had a decent way of increasing the difficulty the higher level you played - it added more objectives rather than simply increasing enemies life or making them suddenly a million times more proficient with a weapon.

[Fyflin]

This

[BlmThug]

Far Cry 2 on Infamous had cheap AI. It was like they were gods :@

[beremy_jeadle]

In terms of gimpy AI, cod wins hands down. I remember in CoD 2, defending a building as russians on veteran, I just had to hide up the stairs and watch a door because it was too hard to shoot from the windows. The AI would run past all your team mates in the building just to get to you. Makes you wonder though, when will we see a game which has a breakthrough for AI and what will the next gen consoles give us for improved AI.

[smashcrashbash]

I know people will disagree with me but the two gun limit in my opinion is one. Instead of making enemies more challenging or smarter, you instead give me less weapons to carry around to limit my choices thus making me virtually weaker in the face of multiple enemies. In R1 and RE4 you had multiple weapons but the enemy was still tough enough to kick your @$$. I personally think that is the true test of a enemy. Even with more the two weaons or attacks they can still hold their own against you.

[Tonester925]

I know on COD on Veteran difficulty they made it where the first bullet doesn't hit. I tried it up close and I was right. The bullet "laser" goes right through them

[Donnywho]

You gotta just press on until you beat it... Or go complain about how much you suck. LMAO I'm sorry, too funny, too funny.

[ZippyZapper]

I hate exploding barrels

[Lord_Sloth]

These are mostly FPS issues but I agree with them.

For a fighting game, the difficulty cheap trick would be the boss character being able to attack through yours. See Mortal Kombat's Shao Kahn.

[SITH]

So true. I don't Think there is a fps game without these cheap tricks.

[mstoner82]

I like that they used Arkham City as the "AI only fights you," argument. Made me laugh. You're the only dude in town that's out to stop these morons, and so you expect them to what? Go after each other? Through the whole game there are power struggles in between the gangs, but in the end, everyone wants to take out the bat, so this mechanic makes sense doesn't it?

I dunno, maybe it's just me, but if I had the option of going after Batman KNOWING I'm getting my ass knocked out or getting a bullet in the teeth from Two Face, I'm probably taking the more "self-preservationist&quo t; route and helping other jackasses fight the B-man.

[Somebody]

Agreed about Batman. Although I really don't like the way, mostly in RPGs, that everyone seem to know you or specifically know every tiny details of your exploits. For example in Fallout 3, you killed some poor sap in the middle of nowhere with no other humans (as witnesses) for tens of miles and yet somehow everyone knows your little crime even before you reached the nearest settlement. I know it's all about Karma that affects your stats but having the whole devastated region judge you for a crime that you did with no one in sight is not that realistic. Sure I might boast about my heroics in the pub later on but I don't think I would be gloating how I slit the town's sheriff throat, dumped his body 50 miles away and let the Rad Scorpions have his corpse for dinner. They don't have CSI or security cams in the apocalyptic future so who's been telling everyone about my crimes?

[blackhammer]

The Godfather.

You crash the pursuing enemy car behind you, the next second, they're fucking back again and only several meters behind you. That was one of the cheapest fucking things I have ever seen in almost any video game.

[cannon8800]

This was a really good article. Keep it up.

[MsclMexican]

Cheap tricks to getting traffic to your site... Keep in making dumb top 5 lists. :/

[PhantomT1412]

Rainbow Six Vegas 2's terrorist hunt on realistic mode is ridiculous. They spawn in places you've just checked and their bullets hit you while their guns point the ground.